Dutch Firm Wins Bid to Resume Search of MH370

Australia announced this month Dutch firm, and FieldLogix customer, Fugro will continue the search for flight MH370 that went down four months ago, although the company doesn’t traditionally conduct deep-sea recovery operations.

Fugro’s director of corporate strategy, Rob Luijnenburg, attributes they company’s successful bid to their “combination of sufficient resolution and the capability to survey a reasonably large seabed in a relatively short time,” while acknowledging the slow-moving searches initially conducted.

Fugro has already been part of the search for MH370, using the Fugro Equator for underwater mapping of the target area. The company will also begin using the Fugro Discovery to tow sonar scans it hopes will help locate debris. The search area is approximately double the size of Massachusetts and sonar guru, Donald Hussong, who will work with Fugro during the search, estimates it could take between 9 and 10 months to search the entire area.

“If we have contrast between the hard surfaces of debris and sediments naturally on the bottom [of the ocean], then we should find it,” says Hussong. “If it’s some place on a rocky bottom or the side of a cliff, it’ll be difficult.”